The 'Stat Chip' was an invention from the earlier age of space exploration.
Initially, its main purpose was first introduced as an embedded health module designed to detect any dormant genetical diseases or other unforeseeable anomalies within a person's body.
At the time, it was a revolutionary and more comprehensive alternative to full body checkup.
Following its invention, the mortality rate of many different diseases started to decrease exponentially while the overall life expectancy of people increased at a commensurate rate.
From then on, the stat chip became a staple product and had undergone many iterations and updates to both its software and hardware to keep up with the advancement of mankind's medicine, creating a new standard in the medical field.
However, from the cultural standpoint, it had also ignited several controversies throughout the ages.
Starting with the possible misuse of such embedded technology, be it for tracking or controlling lives. To problems like data leakage and other harmful causes similar to the vaccination controversy of the past.
Be that as it may, with the continuous advancement of human civilization, it hadn't taken a long time for the creation of a robust set of laws pertaining to such public concerns to follow the development of stat chip.
Nowadays, it had become mandatory in most Space Stations for each newborn and migrating citizen to have a stat chip embedded in the back of their necks as both a form of identification and a tool for medical convenience.
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Irvine looked on dumbfoundedly at the data shown by his stat chip on the infirmary's monitor.
Age: 18
Muscle Strength: 14.8
Physical State: Stage-1 Human
His first reaction was to refocus his eyesight to confirm what he saw. But the numbers were the same no matter how many times he checked them.
'The gene modification serum succeeded!?' Was his second reaction when he tried to rationalize the stats displayed.
'No, that's not correct... Is it?' Irvine shook his head.
18 years old was far from his peak, as evidenced by his Physical State that reverted back to Stage-1 Human. And also...
Gene Modification: -
He had reverted back to exactly his 18-year-old body state that hadn't undergone any Gene Modification in his life.
'Wait... Although this isn't my peak state, isn't this good too? I have more time to develop myself properly... After I get my Gene Mod back later, I can even try to surpass my previous peak state!'
In fact, this result was better for him!
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"Muscle strength has increased by .4 notches from the last physical. Aside from that, there seems to be no problem..."
While he was thinking about many things, the female doctor in front of him kept on muttering as she typed in Irvine's medical report on the computer.
'...She looked a little familiar, but too young to be someone I know from high school. Still, why am I in Greenwood High?'
Irvine had long noticed that he was currently inside the infirmary of his old high school alma mater. However, he still had no idea as to how and why he woke up here already standing in line and everything, so he decided to ask about it to the person closest to him.
"Excuse me miss, where's Doctor Smith?"
Smith was the surname of the black-haired doctor that handled his serum trial procedure.
"Doctor Smith...?" The female doctor asked in confusion.
"Mister Lang, are you still spacing out? Please go back since you're done with your physical, you still have classes in the afternoon."
"Right. Class...?" Irvine reflexively moved to the side at the woman's gesture to let the next person approach, and only then did he realize the next peculiarity in his situation.
He was also wearing the same high school uniform like the rest of the people in line!
It was the same deep green blazer with the yellow and black striped tie that was symbolic of Greenwood High students.
"No way..." The side of his mouth twitched as he mumbled.
'You're kidding me...'
Only now did Irvine's mind tried to entertain the thought of another ridiculous possibility.
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A couple hours later.
*RIIIIIIING*
The familiarly loud sound of the school bell signified the end of the afternoon classes and school day in general for Irvine.
"No way..." He didn't even know how many times the same words had been uttered through his mouth ever since the start of the afternoon class.
Actually, his hypothesis of the situation had already been proven the moment he saw the date written on the corner of the blackboard in his class.
[Friday, April 13th, 218]
It was the year 218 UD.
And the date of April 13th meant that he was currently in the middle of the second semester of his high school senior year.
He had truly travelled back in time to his 18-year-old self!
'Haa...'
Irvine exhaled a breath full of air.
The reason he was having a hard time believing everything even now was not because of any lingering attachment he had towards his future life.
On the contrary, it was because he was afraid that this might've been a dream, and the moment he started to accept it, everything would disappear in an instant leaving him with nothing.
'Isn't this too good to be true...?' The same thought kept repeating itself in his mind over and over.
'It's most likely related to the Time Reversal ability from the original creature of the serum... But didn't they say that the ability was limited to only affecting its own body?'
"It'd be crazy if it could affect the whole world..."
With the ringing of the school bells, the rest of the students in his class had already started to stand up and pack their things while the homeroom teacher was already well on his way towards the door.
"Hey, Lang!" An energetic shout was heard from across the room as a tall robust teenager with disheveled blonde hair approached his table.
"Ah?" Irvine barely reacted to the voice with his head still filled with complicated thoughts and emotions.
'I remember him, this guy is...'
"Grant Dunn." He looked up and answered the guy from his seat.
"What're you daydreaming about, let's go to the club room. We still need to beat those juniors into shape before we graduate."
"The club room..."
'Right, April of 218 means... We just lost the qualifiers for this year's High School Championships.'
Irvine Lang and Grant Dunn were the top 2 players of Greenwood High Battle Arena team.
Greenwood High School was in no way a strong powerhouse school for Battle Arena, but they did have a decently capable team when compared to the surrounding Eastern Zeta area.
And ever since the two of them had entered, they had been steadily raising the level of the team to a height higher than ever before.
Sadly, in the end they still didn't manage to make it past the qualifiers even after their three years of high school.
Grant was someone just like him, a Battle Arena fanatic. The two of them had gotten along great ever since they'd first joined the high school team and gotten acquainted with each other.
Everytime they talked together, every conversations would've somehow found its way to topics about Battle Arena in the end.
'We rarely kept in contact after high school but, I think he only played Battle Arena until college before getting an office job right after graduation.'
"Hello? Earth to Lang, you coming?"
Irvine was interrupted in the middle of his reminiscence. Grant had been waiting on him all this time while saying goodbyes to a couple of passing friends from the side.
'We're not on earth though...' He wanted to retort.
"...Yeah, I'll be right with you."
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The two quickly walked out of the classroom building and towards the field for practice.
On their way, the blue sky and white clouds above their heads gave off the impression of a clear weather, however the glowing blue lines with ticks and hatch marks stretching along the horizons reminded everyone that the skies and clouds inside a Space Station were all artificial in the end.
Still, aside from the ruler-like lines that stretched across the open 'sky', if a person from the original earth were to wake up in here, they wouldn't notice any differences in the environment even with all their senses strengthened.
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Before long, Irvine and Grant reached their destination.
They were inside a fenced perimeter with wide stretch of open green field and white lines that formed rectangular shapes around it, signifying its boundaries.
The two longer sides of the field were decorated with rows of bleachers for spectators to sit on and watch whenever there's an event or a match being held.
This was Greenwood High Battle Arena field.
Unlike the city stadium or the pro teams' training grounds which had customizable landscapes that could become different stages like forests or mountain hills. High school Battle Arena were mostly played on flats because of the budgetary restrictions.
In the end, Battle Arena was all in all an expensive sport.
With large amount of money needed for high-end equipment, seasonal landscape changes, and medical-related expenses for players' injuries, it was not a sport that could be played to its full extent in a small high-school environment.
It was only thanks to its huge popularity and demands that Battle Arena could barely be showcased to its full appeal in the college scene.
Combined with the fact that the licenses that allowed Gene Modification could only be attained for people over 18 years of age, it was no wonder there's a large discrepancy between the level of high school and college Battle Arena.
High school matches that relied solely on martial skills and no special abilities or superhuman feats involved didn't have the power to rake in enough viewership like the college matches could.
"Let's go and do some practice matches!" Grant announced cheerfully as he entered the club building adjacent to the field.
*CREAK*
The front glass door of the building was opened loudly showing the team's locker room with barely any people present within.
Only 4 people were present inside.
"Huh? Where is everybody??" Grant was stupefied looking at the small number of people in the room.
"Oh, Captain? The qualifiers were last week so a lot of the members didn't come for optional practice today..." One of the guys answered when he saw Grant and Irvine coming in.
"What!? We lost so they decided not to practice? How does that logic even come about??"
"Well, um, err..." Seeing the fuming expression on his captain's face, the talking team member became increasingly nervous as he began to stutter.
He was just a freshman, and seeing the towering figure of Grant that was well over 195 cm was very intimidating for him.
At this moment, Irvine who had been watching silently from the back suddenly tapped Grant's shoulder and interjected,
"Alright, c'mon, are you trying to scare away the diligent members as well?"
"Erg..."
"Let's just have a practice match rather than worrying about the slackers." He advised.
"How can we have a proper match with just us! There're only two, three, four..." Grant started doing a head count while trying to retort.
"Six. It's just about enough for a single-tower match, let's go!" Irvine helped him get to the end faster so as not to waste time.
*sigh*
"Fine~ Man, Greenwood's gonna become like it used to be after we graduate." Grant grumbled in discontent.
"Nothing we can do about it. We'll just have to do what we can."
'That's right... Doesn't matter if this is a dream or a God-given chance. As long as it feels real, I'll just have to do all I can to erase my past regrets!'
Irvine's last words were said not only to Grant but to himself.
'Olympus Pro League, here I go!'